The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-25
ATHLETIC SOCIETIES.
GYMNAslUMa ON THE GERMAN PLAN
ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. q

"Father jain" and the Turners-stu-
dents Societies and the Turnvereins
Under Ban-CIasses in a Chicago Gym
lessium-The Pupils
''I1o you know that athletic sports have
In reality come into vogue among Ameri-
cans through the influence of the German
turner societies?'' remarked a member of
the ''age class at the North Side Turner
hall a few evenings ago. You wouldn't
even have had your national game of base
ball if it hadn't been for this influence. To
be sure, athletics were stimulated by the
civil war. Plenty Of young students who
went into the army lily prepared for hard
physical exercise came out strong, vigorous
men They comprehended, then that they
might have had the same physical training
along with their mental development.
From that time gymnasiums on the German
plan began to spring up ali over the coun-
try.
''There are now few colleges, either for
men or women, without gymnasiums Col
leges for men take especial pride in turning
out representative athletes. 1t would
have been impossible previous to the war
for college to have raised the money
that is now annually expended for the pro-
motion of athletic exercises
America has widened very materially
in the last three decades, and not a little o.
it is due to the German element. In all ath-
letic matters Germany is the modern Greece
of the world. German gymnastics are
more scientific than the old Greek exercises,
which consisted mostly of games. -
''When were the first turner societies es-
tablished in the United States?''
SIN 1850, the next year after the exiles
came here. They were naturally obscure,
and had but few members Now there are
30, 600 turner's in this country New York
has the largest number, Chicago next and
Milwaukee third. Milwaukee is our strong
hold. There we have a school where pupils
are instructed in turning for professor
ships. 1t is called the Turnlehrer' Seminar.
Its methods are modelled after those that OBJ
tain in Germany"
THE WORD TURNER
''What is the meaning of the word 'tur
ner?''
TURNER'S are considerably divided in their
opinion in regard to it's origin. The word
turnkunst or turner, is now accepted as the
common German meaning of gymnastics
Turning was phrase first employed by Pro
fessor Ludwig Jahn-known to all turner's
sa Father Jahn'-who organized the first
society in 1912.
CATER NapoIeon's invasion and Ger
many's defeat, Father Jahn' conceived the
and developed physically they would be
able to succ cssfully cope with France.
Gy a :astics had been but little practiced
pko Iaat date, and chiefly by the nobility.
The Germans then were stiff in their ways
and dress. They put themselves into gar
ments that swaddled them up like women.
Father jain said, eve Germans can't even
turn ourselves around. We have no use of
our bodies No wonder the French
1t. Of,,
the purpose of turning ourselves around till
we are as strong and as capable of en-
durance as any men. In this way the
turner's became distinct body.
cit was not difficult for jain to popular
ize any movement he undertook, for he was
not only a writer and teacher of note, but
an agitator and an ardent patriot 1t was
but natural that rapid growth of intelli-
gence, as well as physical development, and
consequently an advance in liberalism,
should be the result of this coming together
of the youth of the land. This liberal spirit
grew apace, and finally took shape in the adj
vocacy by the turner's of a republican
form of government for Germany. The
Prussian government feared revolution,
and regarded these republican ideas with
alarm. The students societies and the
turnvereins were put under ban and con-
demned as hotbeds of dangerous liberalism.
jain and one of his favorite pupils were
arrested In Januray, 1920, the govern
ment abolished turning in Prussia and closed
all of the grounds. jain was acquitted and
released in 1925, but there was no more
turning in Prussia until 1912.
Meantime, his pupil, Francis Lieber,
came over to Boston in 1897, and took charge
of the fremont gymnasium, where he also
established a swimming school.
IN BIG GYMNASIUM
E'The teaching of gymnastics pays quite as
well as teaching other things. Some of our
instructors get 81 900, $1,000, 81, 500,
81, 800, and upward per year."
Downstairs in the great gymnasium were
$50 little girls, clad in flannel suits of navy
blue trimmed with white braid. Small,
sturdy lassies of 6 marched as precisely and
held themselves as erect as trained sol
diers. One little girl swung herself re-
peatedly up and down ladder with her
hands When some pair of hands slipped
from the rings fastened to the ends of the
long ropes that were sspended from the cell
ing o. great shout of laughter would go UP as
the little girl fell fiat on the safety cushion
beneath.
eve have nearly as many American pu-
pills German American, - said Professor
Henry Suder, the teacher in charge every
season our attendance increases. We have,
too, another girls class, composed of over
100 whose ages are from 10 to II.
"There are three boys classes on the
north SIDE numbering in all over 400. Then
there's the young mems class and the age
class. {"
'What is the 'age clasp
sob, middle aged and old turner's who
like to keep their hand-or, rather, their
bodies-in turning exercises. They prac-
,tice but once week. The others have two
a,oSSsS$pgs week.
eapaS9zs,sSsa5 these we have ladies' class.
You would be ast6ENlIsit11 10 see "haI they
can Go. If woman wantst6ilGla ave a grace
full walk, keep from growing fat, afA.I I1Ee
a good, clear complexion, just let her join
the turning class. Some of our ladies have
muscular development like athletes. They
wear a dress specially designed for the
exercise.-Ch Chicago News.
SaratOga's TObOggan Slide.
The people of Saratoga have something
to look forward to in the way of pleasure